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Well I just finished Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline and I agree with all before me who said it was a very good read. I did find quite a few parts a bit hard to believe, but I went with it because the story was very well told.
(you all might recall that I meant to read this, and reserved the book at the library but never focused on the author's name. so I also read Orphan Train by Magnussen and Petrie which was written in 1979. I would say that was also a very interesting read and I would say equally good.
I just started the Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick. It definitely has me hooked though there is a sadness about it that I am finding a little hard to deal with.
While reading Why Nations Fail I was also working on What Went Wrong - How the 1% hijacked the American middle class...and what other countries got right by George Tyler. It looks at policy in this country and several northern European nations as well as Australia. In the USA most large companies are geared strictly toward shareholder benefit for the next quarterly earnings report. In Germany, France, Australia and several other nations government policy makes sure that a longer term outlook that includes all the stakeholders - the employees, the business and the community are all part of the equation.
Many large US companies provide huge stock options for their top executives and this encourages those people to focus only on the short term profits and do all that they can to cut costs - wage compression, off shoring, stock buybacks, far less R & D, financial deregulation, stashing much of their revenue in tax havens, etc. This has resulted in a shrinking middle class and growing wealth of the top 10%.
I also was reading Inequality for All by Robert Reich and watched the companion DVD Aftershock and can recommend both.
I've just started Confidence Men by Ron Suskind. All these books on economics are from the library so I've only got a limited time to read them.
On a lighter note I'm still enjoying Odd Billy Todd and am nearly 1/2 way through it. Also read the latest issue of the Whole Dog Journal, the only thing I subscribe to other than my local weekly newspaper.
I finished reading "A Short Walk on the Hindu Kush" and feel like I really didn't get it. First, even with the maps I kept getting side-tracked by the place names, and the foreign terms (italicized but never defined). I suppose I could've read it with my laptop in front of me and looked up every unfamiliar word or place but that is just not me.
I also didn't really get why anyone would want to subject themselves to such miseries. The brutal terrain and extreme temperature swings would've put me off, but to top it off with chronic dysentery and threat of being robbed or killed -- oh boy. NO WAY. Obviously wasn't a book for me.
I also finished listening to Willa Cather's "Song of the Lark." I am certain I read it decades ago -- at least three. In fact, it might've been the source of my budding interest in opera back in the day. Willa is timeless, but her characters are not. The work had the hopeful, ardent striving for an ideal that I don't see in modern works (and miss).
Now I've started Robert Louis Stevenson's "Familiar Studies of Men and Books," published 1882. I've had it on my bookshelf FOREVER and this is my third attempt. (His essays don't read like "Treasure Island," or -- my favorite: "The Master of Ballantrae.") The first essay is on Victor Hugo's Romances, which was confusing to me because it starts with Hugo and then moves immediately into a comparison of Walter Scott to Henry Fielding. I persevered and he manages to move back to Hugo, eventually.
I've told myself that I will read at least one book off my shelves before moving to more modern works on the Kindle. Now I am thinking maybe I will commit only to a chapter.
I finished reading "A Short Walk on the Hindu Kush" and feel like I really didn't get it. First, even with the maps I kept getting side-tracked by the place names, and the foreign terms (italicized but never defined). I suppose I could've read it with my laptop in front of me and looked up every unfamiliar word or place but that is just not me.
I also didn't really get why anyone would want to subject themselves to such miseries. The brutal terrain and extreme temperature swings would've put me off, but to top it off with chronic dysentery and threat of being robbed or killed -- oh boy. NO WAY. Obviously wasn't a book for me.
I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it, LFM. I had not thought about it but the language/culture could be a big barrier for readers. I'm familiar with both so the Dari/Farsi/Pashto words were usual terms to me and I pretty much knew why certain things were said and done.
For me, the point was that 2 Brits decide to practice mountain climbing on a hill in Wales and figure they are ready to scale the towering mountains of the Hindu Kush after traveling in Afghanistan to get to them. That, to me, was hysterical. They did meet some interesting characters along the way.
I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it, LFM. I had not thought about it but the language/culture could be a big barrier for readers. I'm familiar with both so the Dari/Farsi/Pashto words were usual terms to me and I pretty much knew why certain things were said and done.
For me, the point was that 2 Brits decide to practice mountain climbing on a hill in Wales and figure they are ready to scale the towering mountains of the Hindu Kush after traveling in Afghanistan to get to them. That, to me, was hysterical. They did meet some interesting characters along the way.
No need to apologize, K'. What I got from it WAS interesting, I just didn't get much of it. It was a crazy escapade on their parts -- indication of the infallible human spirit, most likely.
I've returned to listening to "Z: A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald." It's written in first person, from Zelda's perspective, read by Jenna Lamia (who also read the Beth Hoffman books). I read a book about the couple ages ago, and the author portrayed Zelda as a complete "fruit loop" (my summation, not his words exactly) and I'd always wanted to read other works to get a better view of her. This, so far, is doing nicely.
Finished All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr a few days ago Over 550 pages on my nook for pc and it still wasn't long enough for me. Through Anthony's beautiful story telling and well-defined characters I was able to see, smell, taste, hear and feel the devastation of World War II.
Now I am reading Room by Emma Donoghue. I'm having trouble with the child narrator but I'm only 8% in so I expect I'll stop his correcting grammar soon
I am loving all of the recommendations here Thank you.
I am almost through The Bowl of Heaven and struggling all the way. I think I would have loved it when I was a teenager. Now, not so much. And I hate you guys! I have enough books on my to-read list and now I am planning on starting We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Fowler. Stop, stop!
I finished reading "A Short Walk on the Hindu Kush" and feel like I really didn't get it. First, even with the maps I kept getting side-tracked by the place names, and the foreign terms (italicized but never defined). I suppose I could've read it with my laptop in front of me and looked up every unfamiliar word or place but that is just not me.
I also didn't really get why anyone would want to subject themselves to such miseries. The brutal terrain and extreme temperature swings would've put me off, but to top it off with chronic dysentery and threat of being robbed or killed -- oh boy. NO WAY. Obviously wasn't a book for me.
I also finished listening to Willa Cather's "Song of the Lark." I am certain I read it decades ago -- at least three. In fact, it might've been the source of my budding interest in opera back in the day. Willa is timeless, but her characters are not. The work had the hopeful, ardent striving for an ideal that I don't see in modern works (and miss).
Now I've started Robert Louis Stevenson's "Familiar Studies of Men and Books," published 1882. I've had it on my bookshelf FOREVER and this is my third attempt. (His essays don't read like "Treasure Island," or -- my favorite: "The Master of Ballantrae.") The first essay is on Victor Hugo's Romances, which was confusing to me because it starts with Hugo and then moves immediately into a comparison of Walter Scott to Henry Fielding. I persevered and he manages to move back to Hugo, eventually.
I've told myself that I will read at least one book off my shelves before moving to more modern works on the Kindle. Now I am thinking maybe I will commit only to a chapter.
Aw, crap. That sounds like another book for me. I totally get why someone would do that. A few years ago a friend wanted me to go with her husband on his hìtchhiking/roughing it trip through India. It wasn't her thing. Alas, I had and have critters to take care of but I was sorely tempted.
And aw, double crap. That reminds me of all the classics that I would like to reread.
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Over 550 pages on my nook for pc and it still wasn't long enough for me. Through Anthony's beautiful story telling and well-defined characters I was able to see, smell, taste, hear and feel the devastation of World War II.
